Poll: iPhone 3G - 6 months on, are you still happy?
- Thread starter b0rn2sk8
- Start date
Why are you comparing a PAYG price to a contract one? I'm sure that £80 PAYG phone would cost a lot more over the period of a contract, just as the iPhone is available for significantly less than £790 on PAYG.
I've had mine since launch day and I'm still loving it.
Everyone seems to be complaining about the battery life but you have to remember that everyone is comparing it against their previous phones which is not a fair comparison. If you compare it to something of a similar spec such as the G1 then it's not bad.
Everyone seems to be complaining about the battery life but you have to remember that everyone is comparing it against their previous phones which is not a fair comparison. If you compare it to something of a similar spec such as the G1 then it's not bad.
I voted for satisfied in the end. I think i was having a bad phone day.
The thing that displeases me most is that apple have got the complicated things spot on. But the simple things that most, wait make that all phones have been doing well for years wrong. Thats what bugs me the most.
My battery life comments are valid though, although i did compare with a N95, I also have sat in my draw a HTC TyTN, which still destroys the iPhone in the battery department and it has a similar feature set, just lacks the very rarley used GPS.
Also with the build quality, you should not need to buy a case, or a plastic film to protect your phone. It should use the correct type of plastic to protect its self. I have never had issues with chipping or gouging or scratching on any other phone. All my old phones look as new and have never been used in a case or anything along those lines and roll arround in my pocket all day.
As for the app store, out of 10000 apps, i currently use 2. Facebook and Shazam. I have been tempted by a couple of apps but, just looking in the games section alone 90% of them are what i consider to be poor quality, poor concepts in general, old games that have been ported, overpriced or have zero replay ability. Which sums up the app store as a whole. I cant believe people buy stuff like iBeer which is currently the 8th on the list.
I think Apple just need to go back to basics, look at the core features of a phone and do better in those areas, this will improve the whole user experience. But those wont make fancy adverts to sell phones like things such as steet view or 9000 apps no one needs.
But currently nothing beats it for ease of use and web browsing and maybie media intagration. But in every other area the iphone has a match as far as functions that a modern phone needs (basically excluding games).
The next 12 months i think will be intesting, seeing where apple take the phone and what other manufactures can come up with to rival it.
Edit:
Just been looking on the internet at the characteristics of a Li-ion batteries used in the 3G. From what i have gathered a typical Li-ion lasts for 300-500 charge cycles or 2-3 years from manufacture. That makes me think as i have to charge every day, what the state of my battery will be in 6 months time when im way past that 300 charge cycle milestone and what apples stance on it will be. Also take into account ill still have 6 months left to run on the contact.
The thing that displeases me most is that apple have got the complicated things spot on. But the simple things that most, wait make that all phones have been doing well for years wrong. Thats what bugs me the most.
My battery life comments are valid though, although i did compare with a N95, I also have sat in my draw a HTC TyTN, which still destroys the iPhone in the battery department and it has a similar feature set, just lacks the very rarley used GPS.
Also with the build quality, you should not need to buy a case, or a plastic film to protect your phone. It should use the correct type of plastic to protect its self. I have never had issues with chipping or gouging or scratching on any other phone. All my old phones look as new and have never been used in a case or anything along those lines and roll arround in my pocket all day.
As for the app store, out of 10000 apps, i currently use 2. Facebook and Shazam. I have been tempted by a couple of apps but, just looking in the games section alone 90% of them are what i consider to be poor quality, poor concepts in general, old games that have been ported, overpriced or have zero replay ability. Which sums up the app store as a whole. I cant believe people buy stuff like iBeer which is currently the 8th on the list.
I think Apple just need to go back to basics, look at the core features of a phone and do better in those areas, this will improve the whole user experience. But those wont make fancy adverts to sell phones like things such as steet view or 9000 apps no one needs.
But currently nothing beats it for ease of use and web browsing and maybie media intagration. But in every other area the iphone has a match as far as functions that a modern phone needs (basically excluding games).
The next 12 months i think will be intesting, seeing where apple take the phone and what other manufactures can come up with to rival it.
Edit:
Just been looking on the internet at the characteristics of a Li-ion batteries used in the 3G. From what i have gathered a typical Li-ion lasts for 300-500 charge cycles or 2-3 years from manufacture. That makes me think as i have to charge every day, what the state of my battery will be in 6 months time when im way past that 300 charge cycle milestone and what apples stance on it will be. Also take into account ill still have 6 months left to run on the contact.
Last edited:
Associate
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 2,014
- Location
- Wolverhampton
My previous phone was an N95 – feature wise it is superb, but initially I regretted the purchase after noticing the poor build quality, occasional crashes.
Felt much better about the iphone despite the hefty price. It’s a nicer looking device and the interface is simple but functional. I still use my ipod classic a lot, so the main value of the iphone is in browsing the web & facebook when out and about, with a bit of maps/shazam/radio usage.
Current disappointments are the inability to subscribe to podcasts from the phone directly, lack of copy and paste and cumbersome process for sending a text to multiple recipients.
The N95 got me used to charging frequently. Have never received or sent a multimedia message so that’s not an issue either. Don’t use the mail feature much, but I don’t think it’d be much fun to handle large volumes of email with the default app. Seems very basic.
A better camera would be good given that the display is so nice. Quality doesn’t match the N95, but on the upside there’s next to no lag between pressing the screen and the photo being taken. Would take my old K800 camera over both the iphone and the N95.
Overall, satisfied
Felt much better about the iphone despite the hefty price. It’s a nicer looking device and the interface is simple but functional. I still use my ipod classic a lot, so the main value of the iphone is in browsing the web & facebook when out and about, with a bit of maps/shazam/radio usage.
Current disappointments are the inability to subscribe to podcasts from the phone directly, lack of copy and paste and cumbersome process for sending a text to multiple recipients.
The N95 got me used to charging frequently. Have never received or sent a multimedia message so that’s not an issue either. Don’t use the mail feature much, but I don’t think it’d be much fun to handle large volumes of email with the default app. Seems very basic.
A better camera would be good given that the display is so nice. Quality doesn’t match the N95, but on the upside there’s next to no lag between pressing the screen and the photo being taken. Would take my old K800 camera over both the iphone and the N95.
Overall, satisfied
I voted satisfied as in general it just works and is fast which coming from a windows mobile phone previously is great, however I do have a few annoyances:
Lack of profiles: I need loud, silent and a bedside mode, which is currently not possible.
Flight mode: This works well, but whenever I turn it off, it always fails to turn wifi back on, which is hugely annoying
Inability to add shortcuts to the home screen for say turn wifi/3g on/off
Itunes purchases: i regularly lose songs that I purchased on the iphone when they mysteriously disappear when I next connect to itunes, despite it being set to manual manage.
Being unable to run applications in the background, I'd got very used to always being signed into MSN on WM smartphones.
The inability to charge from old firewire ipod chargers is an irritant as i'd built up quite a collection of firewire chargers which have all now had to be replaced.
Lack of profiles: I need loud, silent and a bedside mode, which is currently not possible.
Flight mode: This works well, but whenever I turn it off, it always fails to turn wifi back on, which is hugely annoying
Inability to add shortcuts to the home screen for say turn wifi/3g on/off
Itunes purchases: i regularly lose songs that I purchased on the iphone when they mysteriously disappear when I next connect to itunes, despite it being set to manual manage.
Being unable to run applications in the background, I'd got very used to always being signed into MSN on WM smartphones.
The inability to charge from old firewire ipod chargers is an irritant as i'd built up quite a collection of firewire chargers which have all now had to be replaced.
Likewise, anything will phone someone, but at least what features this has are completely usable. I've not used another phone you can happily browse the internet on as well as this, or a host of other things. iCal is proving to be very useful and even simple things like not missing a phone call when listening to your ipod anymore.
I put highly satisfied, because for all its shortfalls, its still a device that impresses me daily, and more importantly has a fantastic ability to kill all my long journeys with ease!
The only thing I worry about with the thing is how long the Battery lasts. And to date no one has come up with a straight answer. like everyone else I am on an 18 month contract. So I hope Apple don't get any bright ideas that leave us in the wind.
Apple like always have been notoriously expensive for something they have spent the best part of a decade developing but the technology has only just arrived to drive it. If you have had Apple equipment in the past you know that things like Motherboards are 5 times more expensive than any other. Take the Personal computer. An average Motherboard will cost you around £120 but with and Apple you are looking at an equivalent for a minimum of £327 and the PC can be noteably quicker.
I like the iPhone 3G for convenience but as I have just got mine I cannot give any true designation of difference except that the 3G is a bit overated because there is no front viewing camera for vieo stream phoning. Although what Apple will say is that the 3G is for conference calls and that more than makes up for viewing someones ugly mug whilst they talk.
I have just come from 3 so I know what I am talking about.
What I am still unable to work out is that sometimes my Battery discharges overnight sometimes; other times it lasts for days. Hmm?
Apple like always have been notoriously expensive for something they have spent the best part of a decade developing but the technology has only just arrived to drive it. If you have had Apple equipment in the past you know that things like Motherboards are 5 times more expensive than any other. Take the Personal computer. An average Motherboard will cost you around £120 but with and Apple you are looking at an equivalent for a minimum of £327 and the PC can be noteably quicker.
I like the iPhone 3G for convenience but as I have just got mine I cannot give any true designation of difference except that the 3G is a bit overated because there is no front viewing camera for vieo stream phoning. Although what Apple will say is that the 3G is for conference calls and that more than makes up for viewing someones ugly mug whilst they talk.
I have just come from 3 so I know what I am talking about.
What I am still unable to work out is that sometimes my Battery discharges overnight sometimes; other times it lasts for days. Hmm?
I've had my battery gauge stop working all together a couple of times.. Makes it look like you always have full battery until it mysteriously dies.
Man of Honour
- Joined
- 30 Jun 2005
- Posts
- 9,515
- Location
- London Town!
Only had mine for a few weeks, and it was marginal as I'd said previously I wouldn't get one. I'd broadly satisfied, with a number of caveats...
I don't use it as a phone, I wouldn't use a device as a media player and phone personally, - spend a few hours watching a film on the train and I can't make any calls because the battery has run out isn't a great idea in my mind. So I have a Nokia E51 as a phone.
I don't use MMS, I don't see any reason to, not being 12 and all that. If I want to send media I have email.
I've had enough issues with 3G access to be a pain but previous experience says that's o2 rather than the phone.
I don't use phone cameras much, saying that the iphone one is better than 2mp would suggest, in normal lighting it's fine for taking and uploading quick photos to facebook.
I'm not voting for now as I realise the idea is to get the opinion of people who've lived with it for a while but I would otherwise say satisfied.
I don't use it as a phone, I wouldn't use a device as a media player and phone personally, - spend a few hours watching a film on the train and I can't make any calls because the battery has run out isn't a great idea in my mind. So I have a Nokia E51 as a phone.
I don't use MMS, I don't see any reason to, not being 12 and all that. If I want to send media I have email.
I've had enough issues with 3G access to be a pain but previous experience says that's o2 rather than the phone.
I don't use phone cameras much, saying that the iphone one is better than 2mp would suggest, in normal lighting it's fine for taking and uploading quick photos to facebook.
I'm not voting for now as I realise the idea is to get the opinion of people who've lived with it for a while but I would otherwise say satisfied.
Deleted member 651465
Deleted member 651465
Happy with mine; apart from I originally wanted the white model, and ended up with the black one 
Consider it to be the best phone I've owned purely because I can listen / watch stuff if I'm bored and there's always a game available for those "need to waste 5 minute" moments. There are obviously things I'd like to see improved (such as after sending a SMS message the keyboard doesn't go away.. so you have to back out and re-enter the message to read what you just sent) but with the software updates it's slowly getting better and better.
If it broke I'd get another.
Consider it to be the best phone I've owned purely because I can listen / watch stuff if I'm bored and there's always a game available for those "need to waste 5 minute" moments. There are obviously things I'd like to see improved (such as after sending a SMS message the keyboard doesn't go away.. so you have to back out and re-enter the message to read what you just sent) but with the software updates it's slowly getting better and better.
If it broke I'd get another.
Last edited by a moderator:
Associate
- Joined
- 17 May 2004
- Posts
- 1,585
Second Contract phone I bought, first was the original iPhone.
I have never got on with normal texting on phones, but find much easier on the iPhone. I also find it is actually possible to type on properly.
Sure it isn't perfect, but it has what I want.
Only thing I dislike is that since then I have now had to transition over to Apple Kit.
Just waiting for the 15.4" MBPro and 24" LED display along with Airport Extreme and 32Gb iPod Touch.
Next year building an OSX server, so this iPhone is costing me a fortune.
I have never got on with normal texting on phones, but find much easier on the iPhone. I also find it is actually possible to type on properly.
Sure it isn't perfect, but it has what I want.
Only thing I dislike is that since then I have now had to transition over to Apple Kit.
Just waiting for the 15.4" MBPro and 24" LED display along with Airport Extreme and 32Gb iPod Touch.
Next year building an OSX server, so this iPhone is costing me a fortune.